DOE Supports Multiple Interim Spent Fuel Sites: Official

The Department of Energy supports the construction and operation of more than one consolidated interim spent nuclear fuel storage site, a senior DOE official said Monday. “From our perspective, having more than one interim storage facility can help build a more robust, a more flexible, system that will enable us to be more responsive in the future,” Andrew Griffith, associate deputy assistant energy secretary for fuel cycle technologies, said during a Waste Management Conference panel discussion. For example, having multiple facilities could ensure fuel could be moved to storage even if one of the sites unexpectedly became unavailable, he said.

Waste Control Specialists plans in April to submit a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a West Texas storage site with a maximum capacity of 40,000 metric tons of spent fuel. Holtec International expects within a few months afterward to submit its license application for a southeastern New Mexico facility that would max out at 70,000 metric tons of fuel – which would be roughly the full amount now stored on-site at closed and operational commercial nuclear facilities around the country. But representatives from the two companies said during the panel they agreed on the value of multiple interim sites, both also affirming that their company’s plans would complement rather than compete with the Department of Energy’s “consent-based” program to ultimately establish one or more permanent repositories for spent fuel and high-level nuclear waste.

Griffith also suggested that more communities could vie for an interim storage facility. While DOE does not want to interfere with the privatized storage initiatives, which offer an opportunity to move up the timetable for resolving the spent fuel storage question, “we want to keep the door open to communities that may be willing to host an interim storage facility, however haven’t the resources yet to consider that type of involvement or participation in an integrated waste management system,” he said.